Prostrate vs Discomfit - What's the difference?
prostrate | discomfit | Related terms |
Lying flat, facedown.
* Milton
* 1945 , :
Emotionally devastated.
Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.
(botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
(senseid)(Often reflexive) To lie flat or facedown.
To throw oneself down in submission (also figuratively).
To cause to lie down, to flatten; (figuratively) to overcome or overpower.
*
(archaic) To defeat completely; to rout.
* 1611 , Bible: King James Version , (w) 17:13,
* (Edmund Spenser)
To defeat the plans or hopes of; to frustrate.
* 1886 , (Andrew Lang) The Mark Of Cain , chapter 10,
(proscribed) To embarrass greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.
* 1853 , , Villette , chapter 20,
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}
Prostrate is a related term of discomfit.
As adjectives the difference between prostrate and discomfit
is that prostrate is lying flat, facedown while discomfit is (obsolete) discomfited; overthrown.As verbs the difference between prostrate and discomfit
is that prostrate is (senseid)(often reflexive) to lie flat or facedown while discomfit is (archaic) to defeat completely; to rout.prostrate
English
Adjective
(-)- Prostrate fall / Before him reverent, and there confess / Humbly our faults.
- Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.
- I told him you was prostrate with grief.'' — Mammy to Scarlett, ''Gone With the Wind .
- He was prostrate from the extreme heat.
Antonyms
* supineVerb
(prostrat)Usage notes
* Prostrate and (prostate) are often confused, in spelling if not in meaning.See also
* kowtow ----discomfit
English
Verb
(en verb)- And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
- And his proud foes discomfit in victorious field.
- In these disguises, Maitland argued, he would certainly avoid recognition, and so discomfit any mischief planned by the enemies of Margaret.
- She is a pretty, silly girl: but are you apprehensive that her titter will discomfit the old lady?
Usage notes
While widely used to mean “to embarrass, to disconcert”, prescriptive usage considers this a mistake (confusion with discomfort), and restrict discomfit to meaning “to defeat”.“Discomfit zone]”, January 4, 2008, [http://www.grammarphobia.com/ Grammarphobia